SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

You don't have to apologize if you don't want to

Damien Lemon: "Comedy and rap are honest art forms. You’re talking about your life and your world as you see it. So if the intent is to entertain or to make people move, and the intent isn’t to offend, then I don’t really think you need to be running behind everything and apologizing. That’s how you develop your voice and your point of view. That becomes your distinction.

"You don’t want to see Cam’ron apologize. That would take away from Cam. That’s why you love Cam: because Cam will say some wild shit, just like comedians—Louis CK will say some wild shit, Chris Rock will say some wild shit. You gotta appreciate that because that’s what you come to them for.

"I don’t believe in apologizing if the intent was to be funny. Especially if it’s a joke that me or another comic has been doing for a while and somebody gets offended. If it’s a personal attack or it’s something where you slander somebody, then you may want to apologize. But if you apologize just for offending people then you kind of open the door to continue to apologize.

"I feel like right now, a lot of people are getting outraged for attention. There’s a lot of blog rage. Not to give license to hurt anybody to just tear people down maliciously—but when you come into a comedy club, you got to understand that you’re making an informal agreement that you’re up for just about anything. In the name of comedy, we’re just trying to make you laugh. We might say things that are uncomfortable, but there may be a point to it.

"Sometimes people got to apologize because they don’t want to fuck their money up. Sometimes you gotta look at it and say, 'Will this derail my career?' I think if you stand tall and stick to it, people will respect that.

"Look at Natasha Leggero, recently they wanted her to apologize because she said a joke about some veterans and how they can only eat Spaghettios. She was basically making an old joke, about gumming it or whatever, but people were like, 'I can’t believe you insulted the troops!' But she stood tall and was like, 'No I’m not going to apologize for that. You understood what I was going for.'"